#Friends fundraise for NYC bar bouncer paralyzed by COVID-19
“#Friends fundraise for NYC bar bouncer paralyzed by COVID-19”
A beloved bouncer at a famed Upper East Side bar was left temporarily paralyzed by COVID-19, prompting his former patrons to rally around him.
Friends of “Big Ray,” who has helmed the door at Dorrian’s Red Hand for years, have showered him with love — and money.
Ray Vidal’s pals want to see him back on his feet, and had contributed more than $155,000 to a GoFundMe by Saturday.
“it’s so wonderful,” Vidal told The Post about the outpouring of support. “I knew I had some good people around me but I didn’t know how good they really were. And it’s nice not to have to worry about debt.”
Vidal, 51, has worked at the famed Upper East Side watering hole — best known as the place where the so-called “Preppy Killer” Robert Chambers met the young woman he later strangled to death in 1986 — for 23 years.
Vidal got sick with the coronavirus last March, spent three weeks in the hospital and almost four months in rehab afterward. He was temporarily paralyzed as a result of his illness and still has trouble walking.
He struggled for a month to eat, sleep, and breathe, he said, and it wasn’t until mid-April 2020 that he was able to hug his now 6-year-old daughter. Vidal also has a 22-year-old son in college.
He’s able to walk again now, but just barely.
“What’s going on now is I have severe pain all the time and it hurts very much to walk even a little,” Vidal told The Post Saturday. “I’m also on medication five times a day which makes it impossible to return to work.”
Vidal’s last day at Dorrian’s was March 12, the day it closed because of the pandemic. It has since re-opened, he said.
“I hope I get back there,” he said. “We’ll see.”
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